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A review by ak17
Parade's End by Ford Madox Ford
5.0
The story is so damn complicated that I will just say: watch the TV series. When you are done with that read the book and revel in how bloody good it is. Basically it is a weird love triangle that spans for about a decade and involves Sylvia and Christopher Tietjens and a girl called Valentine Wannop. The best part is that he met her, did the nice thing and helped her and the next thing you know it’s 2 hours later and people are saying she is his mistress and keep asking them if they have a child together. Um no. They keep on meeting and a desperately in love but their love is the platonic kind. They don’t even say it until one day when he asks her to be his for the night. And then nothing happens. They get together at the end and are very happy but that is like 10 years later. Not even a kiss. And still everyone is like, she had his bastard. Sigh. There is a war going on also. That part is good and everything but I am here for the love story. No shame.
Admittedly this is my third try – the first time I read book one and just started book 2. But it was at such an awkward time that being in the middle of ww1 wasn’t a good idea (ok it was just before I got food at a restaurant). Second time I was so confused about what was going on that I just gave up (also I had a new school bag and the book didn’t fit into it). The third time round I started from the beginning and worked my way to the end. It was in London at almost midnight in a hostel that I realised just how much I was enjoying this book.
I was enjoying it so much that I even felt the need to HIGHLIGHT some quotes. Not the ones anyone else would use. Oh no. One of my particular favourites is “his beautifully pointed moustache”. I am such an artist. But in all seriousness, this book is a gem.
Just enjoy this:
“Tietjens, with a carefully measured fury, first cross-examined and the damned the police witness to hell.”
All you need to know about his behaviour is practically in this sentence. He is rude, he walks up to people one would crawl before and tell them what he thinks of them. If you would introduce him to the king he would tell him how to rule. Because morally he is right and because he has a British knowledge that he is Tietjens of Groby. He is a rich guy that is poor but he’ll be damned if he doesn’t behave as if he has an inherent right over everyone at some point. At the same time he sticks up for some people and would always say yes to a person wishing to borrow some money. Now, my mother absolutely hates him. He is too virtuous, he is clean in a way that he wouldn’t look at his wife naked in a bath. He can come across as wooden, as emotionless, but they are under the surface. I, on the other hand cannot even pretend to truly understand his character. He is amazingly complex in some respects. To a point that he is just puzzling.
Sylvia on the other hand is a socialite in every respect. To see what I mean just hear this; she went to visit her husband to the front, during war time, when no spouses were supposed to be there and then proceeded to amuse herself with the general (Tietjens’ godfather by the way) while wearing a gold foil dress. Everyone was an insomniac there basically but she came to make her husband wince. Bit of a sadist inside her. Also bit of a masochist. She is amazing and glorious in some respects and a total bitch in some. Being bored with your own damn life is not an excuse.
Sigh. I better stop. Just read this. And watch it. NOW!
Admittedly this is my third try – the first time I read book one and just started book 2. But it was at such an awkward time that being in the middle of ww1 wasn’t a good idea (ok it was just before I got food at a restaurant). Second time I was so confused about what was going on that I just gave up (also I had a new school bag and the book didn’t fit into it). The third time round I started from the beginning and worked my way to the end. It was in London at almost midnight in a hostel that I realised just how much I was enjoying this book.
I was enjoying it so much that I even felt the need to HIGHLIGHT some quotes. Not the ones anyone else would use. Oh no. One of my particular favourites is “his beautifully pointed moustache”. I am such an artist. But in all seriousness, this book is a gem.
Just enjoy this:
“Tietjens, with a carefully measured fury, first cross-examined and the damned the police witness to hell.”
All you need to know about his behaviour is practically in this sentence. He is rude, he walks up to people one would crawl before and tell them what he thinks of them. If you would introduce him to the king he would tell him how to rule. Because morally he is right and because he has a British knowledge that he is Tietjens of Groby. He is a rich guy that is poor but he’ll be damned if he doesn’t behave as if he has an inherent right over everyone at some point. At the same time he sticks up for some people and would always say yes to a person wishing to borrow some money. Now, my mother absolutely hates him. He is too virtuous, he is clean in a way that he wouldn’t look at his wife naked in a bath. He can come across as wooden, as emotionless, but they are under the surface. I, on the other hand cannot even pretend to truly understand his character. He is amazingly complex in some respects. To a point that he is just puzzling.
Sylvia on the other hand is a socialite in every respect. To see what I mean just hear this; she went to visit her husband to the front, during war time, when no spouses were supposed to be there and then proceeded to amuse herself with the general (Tietjens’ godfather by the way) while wearing a gold foil dress. Everyone was an insomniac there basically but she came to make her husband wince. Bit of a sadist inside her. Also bit of a masochist. She is amazing and glorious in some respects and a total bitch in some. Being bored with your own damn life is not an excuse.
Sigh. I better stop. Just read this. And watch it. NOW!